Disable DR Client?

[3ddesign]

Is it possible to disable the client from the DR process? I sure would help my workflow if I could continue to work while the servers rendered in the background.

Craig

[Candelero]

Re: Disable DR Client?

Is it possible to disable the client from the DR process? I sure would help my workflow if I could continue to work while the servers rendered in the background.

Craig

As far as I can get your question - you would like your Client machine to be
out of the rendering process, but the servers to be rendering...

If that is it: the answer is: No, as far as it is the Client machine which provides the scene to the Servers.

From the V-Ray manual

You don't need to set up the render client, since it automatically takes part in the DR. For the render servers, follow these steps:

Best Regards,
nikki Candelero

[BBullo]

Hey Craig, I found a work around here. You can go into Taskmanager, under the processors tab right click 3dmax.exe. Choose set affinity. Here you can set the number of processors it uses locally. you can't take it down lower than one, but this still allows you to free up 50-75% of your processors.

[artykris]

I do it like this:
On your client machine you go to taskmanager, find 3smax.exe in processes, right click on it - set priority - below normal. Now you can start another Max and work normally with modelling, vray materials & rendering.

BBullo - affinity options are only enabled on dual-processor machines... so your trick works only on a dual-proc. client - and it`s fine .

Best regards,

[3ddesign]

Thanks for the replies. The difficulty with reducing Max's priority is that a distributed render is usually only as fast as the slowest computer. Reducing the local machine's capability could slow the whole process, of course, depending on which computers get the last buckets. Redirecting processors to new tasks sounds like a better way. I will try both and if I find out anything revealing, I will post it.

Vlado, would you consider an option to take the client out of the rendering process?

Craig

[3ddesign]

Here's the test results (10 dual servers, local machine dual cpu with hyperthreading):
With normal settings a scene rendered in 2:24.
Setting Viz's priority to Low it rendered in 3:12.
Setting Affinity to one processors it rendered in 5:41.
Setting Affinity to two processors it rendered in 3:22.

Not a great solution.

Craig

[BBullo]

Interesting..there really should be a swithch inside Vray to disable client.
It seems like it would be a fairly simple thing to include. Are there any plans for this in future releases?

[artykris]

Here's the test results (10 dual servers, local machine dual cpu with hyperthreading):
With normal settings a scene rendered in 2:24.
Setting Viz's priority to Low it rendered in 3:12.
Setting Affinity to one processors it rendered in 5:41.
Setting Affinity to two processors it rendered in 3:22.
Not a great solution.

I don`t get it. Why you say it`s not a great solution?
Your tests prove the first method to be the most effective. And unless you can fluently work while rendering in this mode, it`s the best solution.
Render times dropped down, because you`ve taken one machine out of full-power rendering (your client machine).
If you test it on a bigger - longer rendering I think the differencies will be less significant.

[3ddesign]

Yes, the first method is the most effective but neither are a good solution for me because my projects always have tight deadlines, so I need to squeeze every ounce of performance out of these machines as I can. Vray's management overhead on the local machine must be pretty high since it renders slower than the other machines even when at full power. The best solution would be to give me the option to eliminate the client from the render process since it is the slowest machine anyway. I discovered one thing that helped the render time, however. That is to use smaller bucket sizes on the smaller renders.

I appreciate your tip on adjusting Viz's priority. It at least gives me an option I didn't know about before.

Craig